Take Off
by Nine of Hearts
Summary: Kurt and Blaine meet on a plane... that's pretty much all I have to say about it.


When Blaine gets to his seat there's already a boy sitting on the aisle. Well, he's a young man really (it's weird categorizing someone in the wake of teenagehood. Transitioning to being an adult is weird.). A gorgeous one at that, with a very impressive outfit, who looks to be about the same age as Blaine. As the aisle is crowded, Blaine is forced to slide past the man to his seat. Leaving him with the awkward choice between facing the guy as he goes by or putting his back to him. He finally decides that he should face away from the man. Normally he wouldn't, because who wants a butt in their face, but he doesn't want to get distracted by the man's _eyes_ or his perfect hair halfway to his seat.

As he slides past the man he hears a gasp. Then a murmur of "those are mine."

"Excuse me?" Blaine asks, sitting down and looking at the man while furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

The man seems to take a moment to collect himself before speaking. "I designed those pants."

"Wait, what?" That was not the answer that Blaine was expecting. A comment about his ass, maybe. A crappy pick up line? Sure. It would not be the first time that someone (girl or guy) had hit on him with some stupid comment thinking that he would be game for a quick fuck. So he was slightly taken aback by the awed look on the man's face, and the wonder in his eyes.

"…I designed those… I'm an intern at Vogue and my boss saw some of my sketches. For some reason she then had me create a few pairs of those pants" he said gesturing to the pair Blaine was wearing. "And then she put them on a rack next to all of my hero's designs." He paused. "I knew a few pairs had been sold because I asked about the bonus in my paycheck that I got a few weeks ago, but _wow_. Someone is wearing something I designed. Someone I don't even know." He trailed off into his own little world as he finished speaking.

Blaine gaped. "You designed these? Are you serious? That's amazing. These are, like, my favorite pair of pants. I don't buy clothes at the expensive designer stores. Like. Ever. Student budget, you know? But I was with a friend and I saw these and I had to try them on. And once I had, there was no way I couldn't buy them" Blaine rambled.

"Well they look very good on you." Kurt blushed slightly as he said it, but smiled all the same. "My name's Kurt" he said sticking his hand out for Blaine to shake.

"My name's Blaine" Blaine said, grasping Kurt's hand in his. "I can't wait to see your name revolutionizing the fashion world in a few years. You obviously have some serious talent."

Kurt blushed deeply at this. "No, I just got lucky with an amazing internship and boss."

"I don't believe for a minute that it was just luck." Blaine smiled at Kurt for a moment as Kurt stared at him, dumbfounded. As Kurt opened his mouth the speakers dinged and the flight attendant began to speak.

Twenty minutes later their plane began to speed up as it made its way down the runway for takeoff. Blaine gripped both armrests and attempted to keep calm while internally freaking out. He hated take off. Once, when he was ten, he'd been home from school, sick. His mom had dropped him off, turned on the tv after tucking him into bed with a bottle of water, a trash can, and soup in a thermos, and then went back to work. His mom had left the remote on top of his tv however, and Blaine was stuck in his bed because standing up made him dizzy, so he couldn't change the channel. The tv had been left on the history channel. Normally Blaine loved the history channel, but while he was sick? Not so much. Especially because that day, there happened to be a documentary on planes that crashed at takeoff. To this day, Blaine still had a terrible fear of planes when they were taking off. Especially when he was in them.

Blaine tried to take deep calming breaths, but he wasn't able to calm down and loosen his grip on the armrests, and he was becoming increasingly concerned that Kurt would take notice and laugh at him. Moments later Blaine started. He looked over and saw Kurt's hand covering his own.

Kurt glanced over and smiled when he saw that Blaine had begun to breath somewhat normally again. "Come on, let go of the poor armrest, you can grip my hand instead."

"I-" Blaine blinked at Kurt, confused. "What?"

"It'll probably help you calm down if you're holding on to something living." Kurt looked reminiscently past him for a moment, and then continued. "The first time my dad flew out to New York with me we both found out that landing and taking off terrifies him. When I held his hand though, he calmed down a lot. He didn't even cut off my circulation."

Blaine hesitantly took Kurt's hand as the plane began to leave the ground, and then immediately tightened his grip when the wheels bumped the ground a little. He silently held on as Kurt rubbed his thumb across Blaine's knuckles, lightly tracing circles on the back of his hand.

Once they were in the sky and the plane evened out, Blaine loosened his grip. He still held Kurt's hand in his own however. He was debating trying to pretend that the whole flying thing scared him, so he would have an excuse to keep holding on when Kurt slipped his hand from his grasp and turned in his seat to look at him.

"So besides buying my designs and not breaking my hand, what else can I thank you for?"

"Thank _me_ for something? I should be thanking _you_."

A look crossed Kurt's face, a slightly shocked look as though no one had ever told him that they should thank him for anything. "Why- why would you be thanking me?"

"First off, not only did you not laugh at me for freaking out at takeoff, you held my hand through it to calm me down when you don't even _know _me. My parents have never even done that for me." Blaine blushed as his voice broke slightly on the words. "Plus, you made some _amazing_ pants that were more than worth the $200 I spent on them."

"Yes, well." Kurt blushed before shrugging it off. "So, Blaine Anderson who wears my designs, tell me something about you."

"I, ummm, well, I'm from Ohio. As you probably guessed because I'm flying there because why else would anyone go to Ohio."

"Where in Ohio are you from?" Kurt asked curiously.

"Westerville?"

"No way, I'm from Lima. I almost went to school in Westerville."

"Really?"

"Yeah, there was this horrible bully at my school and they have a really nice zero-tolerance policy at a private school there."

"Dalton?" Blaine asked, eyes widening.

"Yup. That'd be the school." Kurt shrugged. "I went and visited it once. My glee club was competing against them so I told them I would spy, but really I wanted to see what the place was like."

"...I went to Dalton." Blaine stared at Kurt for a moment, tilting his head to the side as though trying to place him. "I was actually in their Glee club, the Warblers. Which group were you? Why didn't you end up transferring?"

"It was a lot of money and I was..." Kurt averted his gaze, looking at his fingers. "I was afraid that if I went there I would end up being even more alone than I felt at McKinley. It was a lovely school but... well, if I'd talked to someone I probably would've liked it better, but I didn't so... Anyways" Blaine blinked in shock as Kurt looked up again. His eyes were a beautiful, emotional blue swirl. "My glee club was the New Directions."

Blaine let out a snort, unable to contain himself "sorry, sorry. It's just, why on earth would you guys choose that of all things as your name?" Kurt laughed with him.

"I don't even know. Our choir director was a bit strange, especially that first year."

"I think I remember you guys" Blaine said thoughtfully, staring up at the ceiling trying to probe his memory. "Tall boy and a small girl with a powerful voice but a total spotlight hog?"

"Hold up. You're calling Rachel a spotlight hog? If I remember correctly your group had the same lead soloist for both songs."

Blaine blanched slightly before laughing. "Yeah, well, he was a bit oblivious about proper solo sharing etiquette back then. Especially because most of the solos were handed to him, no question. But I can assure you, he's figured out how to share the spotlight now."

Blaine saw the moment when comprehension dawned on Kurt's face. "Oh god. You were the soloist weren't you?"

"Yeah..." Blaine glanced down at his hands nervously for a moment. "That was me."

"Your hair isn't glued to your head" Kurt said, looking as though he was attempting not to laugh. "I almost didn't recognize you."

Blaine tried to look offended, but a smile broke across his face after a moment. "It was a dark time in my life. Plus proper gelling involves way too much focus when you haven't had coffee. In case you were wondering - about the solos - my senior year I realized the spotlight should and could be shared. It resulted in us making it to Nationals that year. Not to mention New Directions had a girl pass out."

"Well, I approve of the comparative lack of gel in your hair now." Kurt paused a moment, contemplation clear on his face. "You must have graduated the year after me then. I didn't go home for any of the competitions after I moved to New York, but I remember my step brother telling me all about their loss that year. He was the stand in director for them and, well, they were a mess that year."

"We felt awful for them. They were all over the place and there was a lot of tension between them before and after the performance" Blaine commiserated.

"I'm not surprised really to be honest" Kurt sighed. "It was unfortunate, but I'm glad you got something out of it."

After that, there conversation devolved into further discussions of life in Ohio as gay teenagers, as well as their current lives in New York and their dreams for the future. By the time the plane landed, they were laughing and arguing like old friends.

They exited the plane and meandered silently to the exit where their respective rides were waiting. Blaine pulled his phone out of his pocket to determine where his parents were, when Kurt spotted his dad. He heard Kurt call out to them, and began panicking slightly about what he should do. Should he just wander away casually? Or should he stay here? He wanted Kurt's number but it was looking as though his chance to get it was slipping away. Kurt, however, put a stop to his dilemma.

Before his dad reached them, Kurt pulled Blaine into a hug. Blaine let out a surprised breath before reaching up to hug Kurt in return. Mustering up his courage he spoke.

"Hey Kurt?"

"Yeah?" Kurt asked, continuing to hug Blaine.

"Can we...Can we exchange numbers? I'm headed back to New York the day after New Years and I was wondering if we could go out to coffee or something then?" Kurt pulled back slightly at this, looking Blaine in the eyes.

"Sure. Here, give me your phone." Kurt let go of Blaine completely, stepping away and holding out his hand for Blaine's phone. Blaine watched as Kurt plugged his number in and the man Kurt had called out to a minute ago, halted a foot away from them. "There you go. I texted myself from there so I have your number to."

"Thanks" Blaine grinned down at his phone for a moment, brushing his finger over Kurt's name when he was broken out of his reverie by the sound of a throat being cleared. He jumped, and looked up, blushing. Apparently Kurt's dad had chosen this as the moment to make his presence known.

"Dad!" Blaine watched as Kurt jumped at his dad, hugging him tightly. The man chuckled in response and hugged him back.

"Hey bud. Who's your friend here?" he asked, giving Blaine an appraising look, while Blaine shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny.

"This is Blaine. I met him on the plane. He's wearing my pants." Kurt replied cheerfully, letting go of his dad and standing to the side. "Blaine, this is my dad."

"He's what?" Burt grumbled angrily.

"I- umm" Blaine stuttered. "It's not- I bought a p-"

"He bought a pair of pants that I designed dad, that's all."

"Oh. Ok." Burt relented. "He has good taste then."

Blaine preened slightly at the comment before holding out his hand "It's nice to meet you Mr. Hummel" he said as the man shook his hand.

"You can call me Burt. And it's nice to meet you too." Burt replied.

Releasing Blaine's hand, Burt turned to Kurt. "We gotta go kiddo. Your step-mom has dinner set to be ready the moment we walk in the door."

"Alright" Kurt shouldered his bag, pausing a moment before turning to Blaine. "I'll see you soon?"

"Yeah, definitely."

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Blaine was sitting in the car with his parents when his phone dinged.

**From Kurt:** Would it be too pushy to ask you to coffee at 10am at the Lima Bean on Saturday?  
Blaine grinned.

**To Kurt:** Definitely not. It's a date.


End file.
